There's a saying that one is connected to a stranger through six or less
people. So technically, while living in San Francisco, you would know the man
living in Nashville, Tennessee because he works at a diner whose daily
customer has a brother in SF University whose girlfriend is the cashier lady
at the 99 cent store you shop at every Saturday afternoon at 4:30 p.m.
Another example: Two individuals who lived in separate continents meet
each other because of one event. One who has never even heard the word
Manhattan during her lifetime in her little village, and another whose daily
routine was work, cocaine, then coffee shop. Because of this one event, a guy
who used to work in New York is connected to the little girl who lived in
Kabul, Afghanistan.
Manhattan-Kaboul is a French song, and it is about the September
11 terrorist attack. The lyrics are sung interchangeably by a man who worked
in the World Trade Center and died when an airplane exploded into his office
building, and a young girl doing her chores at home who died when bombs
suddenly fell onto her village.
When I first heard this song, I thought it was beautiful. The voices
blend together and the tone is soft. But when I understood the meaning of the
words, there was a whole new perspective. The song didn't become moody
though, it just showed me innocence in a whole different light.
The lyrics created scenes that I pictured in my head, like a silent
movie. I imagined a little girl sweeping the porch. Her downward face tilts
slightly up, her gaze changes from looking at where she is sweeping and
there's a crease in her forehead, and you realize it's because she hears
something. It's coming from the sky, she looks up to see what it is, and
sees... something falling... You see a man preparing to leave for work. He
takes his jacket off the coat hanger, grabs his keys from the nightstand,
motions "see you later" to his dog, and leaves, locking the
door.
"Two strangers caught between unwanted violence."
"The gods, the religions,
The wars of civilizations
the
armies, flags of the fatherlands, the nations.
We are always the target
to the canons"
It's a translation to English, and it might not be totally accurate, but
you get the idea.
Just cry.
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